STIFLING IRAQI REBELS A LONG-TERM PROJECT
Por su interés y relevancia, he seleccionado el artículo que sigue para incluirlo en este sitio web. (L. B.-B.)
The
insurgency in Iraq is showing its adaptability on the battlefield, turning a
defeat in Fallujah into deadly uprisings in Mosul, Ramadi, Baqouba and other
towns, defense officials say.
The Pentagon is coming to the conclusion that the anti-coalition will last
for years, although not at the current level where it musters 100 attacks per
day, the officials said. The real question is whether pro-U.S. Iraqi security
forces will one day be able to keep the attacks at a low enough level to allow
for a functioning democratic government.
"At some
level, this will go on for years," said a Defense Department adviser, who asked
not to be named. "These insurgents are able to get into cities and cause
problems. They're able to do that in a wide-open country."
U.S. Marines, Army soldiers and Iraqi security forces declared yesterday
that they had conquered Fallujah, more than a week after troops invaded the
city's northern neighborhood and drove the enemy toward a blocking force on the
southern outskirts.
Commanders say as many as 1,000 insurgents were killed, although Pentagon
officials privately put the number in the hundreds.
Col. Michael Regner, operations officer for the 1st Marine Expeditionary
Force in Fallujah, told Reuters that at least 1,052 insurgents had been taken
prisoner. Only about two dozen were from outside Iraq. Iraqi government
officials have said they have found the dead bodies of Iranians, Syrians, Saudis
and Sudanese inside the fallen city.
Sporadic fighting was reported on a few streets in southern Fallujah, and
ground troops called in air strikes to hit buildings housing the remaining
fighters.
"What you're seeing now are some of the hard-liners," Marine Maj. Gen.
Richard Natonski, who designed the war plan for Fallujah, told the British
Broadcasting Corp. "They seem to be better equipped than some of the earlier
ones. We've seen flak jackets on some of them. But we're more determined, and
we're going to wipe them out."
But many insurgents escaped before the Nov. 7 assault on Fallujah, and
others sprung attacks to coincide with the battle, demonstrating some degree of
centralized command and control.
What troubles some Pentagon planners is the fact that cities that seemed
secure suddenly became the scene of blatant terrorist attacks.
"The insurgency is like water, and when you squeeze it, it kind of goes like
water," Gen. John Abizaid, the top commander in the Persian Gulf, told reporters
Sunday during a visit to Baghdad.
The Pentagon considers Fallujah the key battle in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq
because the city had been used as a command center, a recruiting post and a
bomb-making factory by anti-coalition Iraqis and by followers of Jordanian-born
terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi.
Zarqawi, who is believed to have escaped the city last summer, is
responsible for scores of car bombings. An Islamic Web site yesterday posted an
audio message it said was from the terror leader.
"Cut all their supply lines, the main and secondary ones," said the voice,
according to Agence France-Presse. "Carry out ambushes on these routes. Make
sure that the initiative in the battle remains in your hands."
Zarqawi's foreign followers, aided by Saddam loyalists, are proving
adaptable.
In Mosul, north of Baghdad, soldiers had told The Washington Times that
security had progressed to the point where local security forces did most of the
work, while American troops held back and watched. But during the battle for
Fallujah, insurgents sprung a series of deadly attacks on police stations that
required Army soldiers to re-enter the city and call for reinforcements from the
south.
Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, the top U.S. tactical commander in Iraq, had touted
Baqouba as a model city where Kurds, Sunnis and Shi'ites co-existed.
But that city, like Mosul, erupted in violence once the Fallujah fighting
started.
The victory in Fallujah, which has cost the lives of more than 38 U.S.
Marines and soldiers, is seen by the Pentagon as an opening for what the
military calls a "tipping point" where the tide of battle turns in the
coalition's favor.
"When we win this fight — and we will win — there will be nowhere left for
the insurgents to hide," Gen. Abizaid said Sunday outside Fallujah. "We will
fight them until there are none of them left to fight."
The possibility of a tipping point was underscored on Sunday, when three
four-star generals met in Baghdad to map future strategy. The participants were
Gen. Abizaid, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the senior U.S. general in Iraq, and
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
A Pentagon adviser said one topic of discussion is how to better combine
brute force against the insurgents with reconstruction projects to win the
hearts and minds of average Iraqis.
In a sign the insurgents know the importance of such aid, fighters attacked
convoys yesterday trying to get the first shipment of reconstruction supplies to
the bombed-out Fallujah.